Sister Location: Tomorrow is Another Day
by SaintHeartwing
Summary: William Afton is now taking a job helping to repair and manage the animatronics he created. He has no idea the horror in store for him. And young Adam, a sweet, crybaby of a child, is struggling to stay alive just as William is. Can the two overcome their nightmarish scenarios? Adaptation/Novelization of FNAF4 and Sister Location.
1. The Nightmare Begins

He took a long drag of a cigarette and sighed as he leaned back in his chair, his deep brown hair and freckled face looking over the desk he now sat in front of. His eyes were a deep, lovely green just like his daughter's, his face friendly yet worn, the faded jacket he wore over his plain white shirt slightly scratchy, just like the stubble on his face. The engineer quietly breathed a puff of smoke to the side as the man behind the desk placed his hands together, resting them on top of the design schematics for his creations...his toys. His animatronics. His...babies.

"There's no doubting what you've achieved on a TECHNICAL level. These are clearly state of the art." The man said, giving a calm nod as the engineer quietly took another drag of his cigarette. The man behind the desk tapped a finger on the schematics on top, tilting his head slightly. "There are just certain...design choices that were made for these robots that we don't fully understand. We were hoping you could shed some light on those."

"She can dance, she can sing! She's equipped with a built-in helium tank for inflating balloons right at her fingertips. She can take song requests." The British engineer sighed softly, looking at the schematic on the desk of his special Baby. Dear Circus Baby, who'd been his pride and joy. Who's very rosy smile he'd modeled after his daughter. "She can even dispense ice cream." The tall, slightly-too-thin-for-his-jacket engineer intoned. He looked as though he'd once been quite robust and powerful, but now poor health had begun to take its toll upon what had been a fine frame once upon a time.

The man behind the desk seemed to hesitate, and then his tone became slightly more...cold.

"With all due respect...those AREN'T the design choices we were curious about, Mr. Afton..."

William V. Afton flinched...and he dug his free hand into his knee as he extinguished the cigarette, and the last bit of smoke wafted lazily through the air in the Human Resource Room.

"...it wasn't exactly...I had made them to bring joy to children. Sometimes what's meant to be a happy thing can...turn tragic. And you don't even realize what you've done until it's too late to be stopped."

"You're sure you want to take this position? It's quite the step down." The Human Resource manager intoned quietly. "You could have just accepted the severence pay. Taking such a huge pay cut-"

 _"Yes."_ William said curtly. "Who else but me could handle them properly? You haven't had much luck with other hirees, have you? It's been three months and not a one of them has lasted a week, correct?"

The Human Resource Manager sighed and placed his hands together, taking in a deep breath as he looked down at the schematics. "Very well, Mr. Afton. You make a good point. You've certainly got the experience needed, and we DO appreciate you not suing us over what had happened several months ago."

"I appreciate you not suing me." William said. "Let's just call this a...fresh start. I'm just like any other employee now." He remarked with a little freckled smile.

Just like any other employee at Circus Baby's Rentals and Entertainment, a subsidiary of Fazbear Entertainment, owned by Afton Electronics LLC. He would have had more leverage normally, but unfortunately the Board of Directors had worked their scheming magic and he had been unable to manage anything more than this. Normally he would have wanted to simply buy up the place completely, but after what had happened, all he really had to trade on was his name and experience. Most of his money had gone into settling lawsuits. Parents were furious.

In all honesty, he was surprised, to an extent, that the company was letting him do this. He had wondered if perhaps they'd just toss him completely under the bus, blame HIM for what had happened. The company...this foolish company. It was supposed to rent out animatronics for children, having their original purpose of being used in a pizzeria destroyed due to said pizzeria being shut down due to a gas leak. And people had been furious over an awful incident with a child that had happened at a birthday party. TWO incidents had happened, in fact. It had been an accident, really, but...still...

"So when do I start?" William sighed.

...

...

...

... _"Daddy...why won't you let me play with her?"_

"Welcome to the first day of your exciting new career! Whether you were approached at a job fair, read our ad in "Screws, Bolts and Hairpins", or if this is the result of a dare, we welcome you." The PDA system informed him as he leaned back against the elevator, sighing as he hung his head, hair flopping about. There were various posters on the interior of the elevator, which, like ALL his creations, was state of the art as well, surely ahead of its time. Powerful steel doors, pipes running up the walls with circular valves, a keypad on the wall, a set of circular lights high above him that were underneath a gigantic rotating fan...all of it was his designs. His work.

Especially the animatronic on display on the post on the wall. A white body with red hair that matched her big red nose and rosy cheeks and pretty little dress...deep blue eyes...a microphone in her hands and a big ol' smile, that? That was Circus Baby. His pride and joy. His gaze lingered on it for what seemed to be an eternity as his "personal guide" droned on and on. The "HandiUnit" kept blabbing on and on in its annoyingly faux-helpful voice on how it was here to help, how his new job offered "endless janitorial opportunities" and that he should enter in his name on a slightly googly-eyed keypad that popped up from the center of the elevator.

The keypad, however, kept flashing and shifting, the buttons swishing back and forth and making it impossible to try and hit anything accurately. William grunted in annoyance, randomly pressing a button to try and enter his name.

"It seems you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type and I will autocorrect for you. Welcome...Eggs Benedict!" HandiUnit cheerily intoned.

"Oh, bloody hell." William grunted as the keypad shot back into the elevator and he groaned, tugging his face down with his hands, looking at another poster on the wall of the ballerina animatronic, "Ballora". She had a lovely purplish/pink tutu, painted lips, deep purplish/blue hair tied back in a bun, and pretty ballet shoes, her eyes eternally closed. She was regal and sophisticated, and a bit more...adult. She even had breasts, after all. He didn't really put those on his animatronics, not usually. But she'd been different, oh yes. Slightly modeled after his wife, in truth.

Besides, girls needed to learn that...GASP! **Women had breasts when they grew up!** Better to learn it sooner than later. Kids today were too bloody sheltered and stupid. Why did they have to be so stupid and...

...why couldn't he stop thinking about his own daughter. He'd _told_ her, no. No, she shouldn't be around that animatronic. Play with the little plushtrap I made for you instead. It was a popular little toy, after all, with a powerful bite. Like a fingertrap! Snap-snap.

He chuckled a bit, remembering one bratty little shite who'd complained to his company about the plushtrap's strong jaws and saying it shouldn't be so strong. Then, to demonstrate, the idiot had put her finger IN THE PLUSHTRAP'S MOUTH and of course it had clamped down! She'd spent the next ten minutes running around the room, yelling, hands flopping about as the plushtrap bounced about along with her flailing hand as they tried to take it off. The whole point was NOT to put your fingers near its mouth like that. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Why did kids have to be so damn stupid?

Still, it was time to start working. He'd arrived at the floor he'd be working at. He knew, because he could hear the cute little circus music playing over the PDA, and he sighed, pressing the bright, red and obvious button on the side of the wall by the Ballora poster. THWOOSH! The doors slid open, and he made his way through a long vent shaft that would take him to the control room. He wasn't sure why they'd not made the vent shaft into a larger hall...oh, right.

So the animatronics couldn't fit in. He'd forgotten about that. He could get absentminded at times. It was why he hadn't been paying attention that-

...at any rate, he calmly began crawling through the vent, sighing as the stupid "HandiUnit" kept speaking through the PDA system. "Allow me to fill this ominous silence with some lighthearted banter."

"How about you don't?" William grunted as he kept shimmying through the vent. He was sure this damn fool thing existed just to drive him mad.

"Due to the massive success and unfortunate CLOSING of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, it was clear that the stage was set, no pun intended, for another contender in children's entertainment. Unlike most entertainment venues, our robotic entertainers are rented out for private parties during the day. And it's YOUR job to get the robots back in proper working order for the following morning."

"Don't I feel lucky." William chuckled to himself as he kept moving through the vent shaft, finally exiting out into a large, faintly-lit-with-a-pair of-green-lights control room. There were two large windows, one to the right, another to the left, with keypads that had two buttons on them. Though currently inactive, he could tell the top buttons were blue, with a "light" button on it, and the bottom buttons were red with a lightning bolt upon it. On the walls in front of him, a vent opening in the middle, masks flanked the sides and the top along with a pair of security TV screens. William frowned at the sight of the masks, wishing they'd gotten rid of them a long while ago. Not every animatronic idea had worked out so well. Especially not that red-nosed, overly-boyish one that hung over the top of the gigantic cooling fan in front of him, that...faintly clownish faced thing that looked like a bad Pinocchio ripoff. UGH.

Ignoring the masks as best he could, he glanced at the vent shafts underneath the windows, then at the keypads, one of them lighting up. It was his job to check to see if Ballora was on stage now. So he pressed the blue button as the faint green lights cast a sickly glow over the control room, and looked inside Ballora's stage.

Nothing. She wasn't in front of the purple-curtained stage.

"Uhoh! Looks like Ballora doesn't feel like dancing."

"Well, she can dance if she wants to. She can leave her friends behind. Cuz her friends don't dance, and if they don't dance, then they're no friends of mine!" William chuckled, doing a little "Safety Dance" on the spot as HandiUnit deliberately waited, almost sounding annoyed as it spoke back up.

"Let's...give her some motivation. Press the red button to administer a controlled shock. Maybe that'll put the spring back in her step!"

"Well, I do like giving people a shock." William confessed with a wry smile, pressing the red button that had the lightning symbol on it as the sound of electricity sizzled through the air. He then checked the light again and, sure enough, Ballora was slowly twirling about on stage along with her Mini-Ballerinas or "Minireenas" as William called them. They had a faintly puppet-like white face and had their hands above their heads as they twirled about, just like Ballora, and William turned to the other keypad on the right side of the room.

The Funtime Auditorium, where "Funtime Foxy" was. William turned on the light...nothing. Nothing but shadows and dust. He then pressed the shock button, and was sure that he could see the animatronic slightly SQUIRMING below a giant, almost cattle-prod esque mechanic that had jabbed into her. He blinked a bit, then turned the light on.

...nothing. He tried the shock again. The crackle of electricity filled the air and William turned the light on once more. This time, Foxy was on the stage, calmly waving and bowing its head...briefly turning to look squarely in his direction. Eyes deep yellow and piercing as if to say

"I know...that was you."

"Looks like Funtime Foxy is in perfect working order!" HandiUnit cheerily intoned as the vent below the cooling fan and below that hateful mask shot open. "Great job! In front of you is another vent shaft. Crawl through it to reach the Circus Gallery Control Module!"

William relented, continuing to make his way through the vent, finding himself in a circular room with large windows all around, an ugly little cheery puppet-esque bobblehead sitting atop one of several control panels below the central window. Helium tanks laid abandoned to his left, a much larger tank to his right along with various fans, and, of course, a keypad for shocking, just like in the previous room. He sighed and sat down in the control room's chair, HandiUnit telling him to turn on the light.

Click! Nothing. A few of the lights were out, only the one right in front of him turned on instead of exposing the entire stage in light. "Let's cheer up Baby with a controlled shock!" HandiUnit intoned, that ugly, UGLY bobblehead looking right into William's face, that stupid smile spread from ear to ear.

He turned it around so it faced the window, frowning as he delivered a controlled shock. BRRRZZZTTT! Turning the lights on...

Nothing. So he tried another controlled shock, cringing as he did so. This was like a new version of the "Milligram Experiment", he inwardly grumbled, shaking his head back and forth.

...still nothing. At all. Where-

"Great job, Circus Baby! We knew we could count on you!" HandiUnit said, William stiffening slightly, feeling an ugly, foul coldness creeping up the back of his spine. Something wasn't right here. "That concludes your first night on the job. We don't want you to leave overwhelmed, otherwise you might not come back! Please leave using the vent behind you and we'll see you again tomorrow!"

William slowly rose up, glancing about, peering into the infinite black behind the windows, listening. LISTENING. He couldn't hear anything but the soft rotating fans and the faint hum of electrical wiring as he gripped the chair tightly, biting his lip, eyes peering out into the black. Nothing but silence greeted him. Nothing but shadows and dust.

He slowly eased himself down, turning around and making his way through the vent, shimmying further and further...

Hearing a THUD noise echoing right behind him.

And he tore through the vent, barreling out the exit and into the elevator, panting and heaving as the door slammed shut, and it made its way up, up, back into safety and into the light as he wiped his brow. Thank goodness for small mercies...and solid steel doors.

...

...

...

..."Another day, another dramatic entry in the lives of Vlad and his distressed mistress!"

William chuckled, calmly munching away on the bowl of popcorn he had in front of him, his rather olde-fashioned TV set playing his favorite cartoon, "The Immortal and the Restless".

"Where will they go? What will they do? All of that and more, happening right now!" The faintly Romanian-sounding narrator intoning as the light from a sepia-toned lamp illuminated his lonely living room, a clock in the shape of an abstract sun slowly ticking away on the walls as William munched and munched.

"Clara, I tell you, the baby isn't mine!" Vlad remarked on the screen, his skin a faintly undead blue, his jacket a deep purple similar to William's own, his hair a greyish/black as the vampire pleaded with his beloved wife.

"Count, I tell you that it IS!" Clara insisted in her long-sleeved green shirt, her sleeves rolled up her arms as she gave him an annoyed glare, one hand on her hips, the other gesturing over at the tot in a cradle not too far away in the castle they called home. "You're the only vampire I've ever loved!"

"Ah, vampire and human love stories, THOSE won't ever get old." William chuckled.

"And the baby turns his bottles into powdered milk!" Clara added. Sure enough, a flashback showed the baby was the same skin tone as Vlad, looking down, stunned, his baby bottle now turned into nothing more than powder in its hands as it gave a dissapointed "goo" in its cute little blue suit.

"That doesn't mean anything!" Vlad insisted with a "harrumph.

"HE SLEEPS ON THE CEILING FAN." She proclaimed, another flashback showing the tot's arms crossed over its chest, hanging from the turned-off ceiling fan above.

"Upright or upside-down?" Vlad asked, looking almost intrigued.

"Why does it matter?!" Clara groaned, grabbing Vlad by his jacket and angrily shaking him. "You need to be part of your son's life!" She insisted, William savoring the show and the buttery popcorn as he nonchalantly munched away.

"I'm an old man, Clara! I can't BE a father!" Vlad insisted, shaking his head as Clara pointed accusingly at him.

"Well then at least pay your child support, you DEADBEAT!" She proclaimed.

"Emphasis on "dead"." William chuckled as he tossed a single popcorn kernel into the air and caught it in his mouth. "My, my, truly artem imitatur vitam."

"Will Vlad and his distressed mistress find common ground? Tune in next time on "The Immortal and the Restless!" The narrator intoned, William letting out a yawn as he began to slump down in his chair, and drift off into hazy sleep.

 _"Daddy...you let the OTHER children go see her! Why won't you let ME go?"_

"Baby, you're too little..." William whispered. "...too...little. And you deserve so much better. The others aren't like you, you're SO much better than them and you deserve so, so much better than all those silly little kids...promise me you...won't...go...near..."

He awoke to the sound of her scream.

He ALWAYS...awoke...to the sound of her scream.

Unbeknownst to William Afton, someone else was horribly enduring terrible dreams. Dreams of the past...dreams of tragedy, just like his own. It was someone Afton knew well, for after all, his best friend was the child's father, and had owned a place of pride and joy...the Fredbear Diner. A place of magic and fantasy, where William Afton's Fredbear, aka "Golden Freddy", could perform for the children. Afton hadn't been too keen on his daughter being around Golden Freddy either...said it was a bit too dangerous. And it had been a relief to see his daughter didn't much like Fredbear any more than his best friend's son Adam did.

Poor Adam was not sleeping well...

At all.

 _"Five days until the party." Adam thought aloud, his little brown hair flopped down around his head as he hugged his legs, sitting atop his blue-sheeted bed, head bowed low as he sniffled. "F-Five days." He murmured, picking up his little purple-bowtied, purple-hatted Fredbear teddy bear and holding it tightly to his chest. He softly breathed in the faint smell of fresh-baked bread that seemed to waft up from "Golden Freddy" as he faintly heard it speak in that comforting way._

 _"What did he do this time? He locked you in your room again."_

 _Adam tightly hugged his lil' teddy and whimpered. He hated it. He hated being trapped and alone. Some days, not even Golden Freddy helped._

 _"Don't be scared. I'm here with you." Golden Freddy softly said, Adam looking around his room, eyes scanning past the purple dresser drawer that housed an equally purple lamp, looking at his other plushies. He walked over to them, lifting them up one at a time, whimpering a bit. Bonnie's soft blue fur with the scent of blueberries, Chica the Chicken and her cute little pink cupcake on a plate, Freddy Fazbear and his adorable little top hat, all were perfectly fine. But his favorite, Foxy? Foxy's red-furred body that smelled like cherries had its little hook hand...but no head._

 _His brother had probably taken off the head. Jeremy always liked to do that kind of awful stuff. Angrily, eyes a mixture of rage and sorrow, Adam raced over to the door and banged on it. "LEMME OUT! LEMME OUT! AND GIMME BACK HIS HEAD!"_

 _Utter, absolute silence. Adam kept banging, his tiny little fists slamming against the door before he began to slowly curl up into a ball on the patchwork quilted rug of the floor and quietly began to cry. His tears flowed freely down his cheeks as he sobbed, brown hair flopping down as he whimpered pitifully, Golden Freddy's voice echoing in his head and in his heart._

 _"Tomorrow is another day..."_

...

...

...

...Adam awoke, his eyes wide. He quivered with fear, his grey, almost silver eyes wide as sweat matted his brow. The floor of his room felt cold beneath his barren feet as he raced across the room, away from the Freddy plushie on his bed and the warmth of his familiar patchwork comforter. He slowly creaked the white door open, cringing a bit, wishing there wasn't two ways to enter his new bedroom...two doors. He gulped, and listened, a flashlight left by the doorway which he picked up, the "Freddy Flashlight" aiming out into the darkness, Freddy's open mouth spewing forth light.

Nothing was in the deep orange-reddish walls, the hallway abandoned. There were windows showing naught but darkness, the entire house empty and barren as a cemetery, a lamp on a far-off table some distance down the hall and a ceiling light high above him, a blotch of golden/brown on grey. He then closed the door and ran to the other side of the room, flashing his flashlight down THAT hallway, seeing the many pictures on the wall.

His mother, his father, his brother, they all had photographs on display on the wall. Yet something wasn't right. They looked...off. He wasn't quite sure why, but, they looked too-

And then his brother's eye winked at him.

Adam yelped, slamming the door shut and holding it tight, cringing as he ran over to the closet, wondering if perhaps he should race in and hide inside with his favorite Foxy plushie, but as soon as he opened up the closet, the darkness within brought a chill that ran up his spine, making him shiver and shudder as he quivered nervously, faintly...hearing...

...breathing. Breathing from the other side of the room. He raced over to the other side, and held the flashlight up, flashing it. He faintly saw the tiniest shimmer of something blue that shot back into the hallway it had come out from, Adam shuddering as he closed the door, waiting for a few moments before checking back outside. Nothing. He breathed a sigh of relief, turning back to his bed before gasping.

Something was on his bed along with the Freddy plushie. It looked positively foul and frightening, its teeth like daggers, its eyes tiny pinpoints of deadlights that gleamed unnaturally, making Adam shudder as it quivered and shook like a demonic bobblehead. It giggled a bit before vanishing, hopping off the bed and dissipating into the darkness as Adam quivered with fear, its soft, almost mocking laughter ringing through the air as he shook his head rapidly back and forth. No, no, NO! This couldn't be happening! This couldn't!

He then heard the breathing again. This time coming from the door on the right side of his room. And much...much closer.

He ran over to the door as he heard the faint thudda-thudda-thud of heavy footsteps racing towards his room and tugged the door shut, holding it there as hard as he could, hearing the heavy, foul breathing on the other end. He quivered with fear as he could FEEL something thick and deadly being pressed against the door, a large, robotic, foul hand that wanted to rip him in two, to rend him asunder.

"Why don't you let me in?" A distinctly male voice inquired, sounding almost faintly showoffy, and yet...there was a decidedly twisted, foul, unnaturalness to its tone as Adam held the door tightly shut, eyes wide, trying not to scream. He gripped the door handle with a level of ferocity and fear unparalleled by most kids his age, hell, with a ferocity and fear most ADULTS never experienced. "I've got a special lil' song **just** for you. Come on in and I'll play it for ya, Adam. Just need some parts for my guitar. New strings. You're not REALLY using your intestines, now are you?"

Adam was REALLY trying hard not to scream. To think, he used to find Bonnie funny.

"Come on. Think how much fun it'll be to be part of a rock band, Adam! LITERALLY. Part of a rock band." The twisted voice inquired as Adam shook and shuddered...but kept the door held shut. He was NOT going to give this monstrous imitation the satisfaction. For a long, long time, almost an eternity, he held the door shut, and then, at last...he heard the breathing fading, and he let out a soft sigh of relief as he heard the faint beeping of his alarm clock beginning to go off, and he could faintly feel the early morning rays of sunlight peeping out from underneath the door...

It was tomorrow.

Tomorrow was another chance.

Tomorrow was another day.

 **Author's Note:**

 **Adaptations and novelizations of the FNAF stories are kinda ignored and aren't giving as much attention as they should be. I decided to down two birds with one stone. Though there may be some liberties based on moving the plot forward, I'll try to be as true to the canon as I can be, based on what we know. Though that's a bit of a problem cuz what we DO know about the story is so open for debate. In any case, enjoy, review, critique, whatever you're comfortable with.**


	2. Tomorrow is Another Day

_"Daddy...you let the OTHER children go see her! Why won't you let ME go?"_

William V. Afton had not slept well at all. The bags under his eyes almost made them look purple as he pinched the space between them and cringed, taking in a deep breath. Slowly but surely he descended back down the elevator, hearing that annoying "HandiUnit" speak to him once again, that overly cheery voice seriously getting on his nerves. The only way the voice could have been more irritating was if it had been a 5 year old American demanding a balloon.

"Welcome back to another night of intellectual stimulation..."

"I highly doubt that." William grunted.

"Pivotal career choices..."

"I'll give you THAT..." William snickered.

"And reflection on past mistakes!"

"Okay, two out of three's not bad." The wry voice of William mumbled as he rubbed through his hair, which was slightly messed up from his tossing and turning, having fallen asleep in front of his television just like always. He just...couldn't bring himself to go back up to his bed, to go back under the covers and pull the comforter up around him. He couldn't. Because every time he did that, in the morning he'd...he'd always instinctively reach over to the dresser, to the lamp. He'd turn it on and instinctively expect his hand to gently brush up against her face, and he'd see his daughter smiling softly in her sleep, the morning rays still not hitting her rosy cheeks.

Every time he went to sleep up there, he'd keep thinking that if he woke up, he'd see her. And it just hurt that much more every time he didn't. Nor did the temptation of a woman's touch comfort him, for he'd only been interested in one. THE one. His darling, his muse, the very woman he'd based the animatronic of Ballora upon.

Somedays he wondered what might have happened had she not...

...ugh. He groaned, seeing the HandiUnit had popped up its keypad again and it wanted him to pick a new companion voice, but the keypad was, once again, glitching out. He grunted, just punching the thing with a THWOCK as it autocorrected itself to its new voice...

Angsty Teen.

"Bloody hell." William Afton grunted as he covered his face in his hands and groaned, his fingers still smelling like popcorn grease as the elevator came to a halt once again and a whining, annoying, overly depressed young male voice rang out after some cheery music played through the elevator.

"The elevator's stopped. You know the routine. You can get out now or...whatever. Stay here if you want."

William grunted as he made his way through the vent, heading back to the central control room as the HandiUnit kept speaking over the PDA. "So, funny story? A dead body got found in this vent once? Okay, so not that funny, but...its a story."

"A dead body?"

"Yeah. Last technician we had down here. We got, like...a high turnover rate. Not that I care."

"Oh, that just gives me SUCH confidence in current management's skills." William muttered as he rolled his eyes. "Never send a boy to do a MAN'S job." He remarked as he entered the main control room, frowning as he saw the ugly clownish, boy-like bobblehead on the cabinet to the left of Funtime Foxy's window. He turned it around so the stupid thing wasn't grinning at him, the HandiUnit letting out a long, drawn-out sigh.

"Okaaaaay. Let's start with your nightly chores. You should check on Ballora, make sure she's on her stage, but...whatever. I don't really care."

William pressed the light button on the left side of the control room, and, sure enough, just like last time, there was nothing on the stage but shadows and dust.

"Huh. Guess Ballora has better things to do. Let's zap her! That should be fun."

William gave a little smile as he mentally imagined giving the living embodiment of the HandiUnit a horrific shock, pressing his finger into the shock button. BRRRZZZTTTT!

And then something went wrong. Odd. A...voice began to echo out from behind the window, filling the room as William stiffened. It sounded as though someone was speaking underwater, everything was garbled and drowning and twisted. William could barely make out this foul, otherworldly sound but it almost sounded like..."Argumentative? Standards? Elevation? Passive? Height?"

William took a nervous step back. That...didn't sound right. Was...was that Ballora's voice? Couldn't be. He shuddered as HandiUnit spoke up. "Let's check on Funtime Foxy, see if she's ready for tomorrow."

William tried to shake off what he'd heard and pressed the shock button...

Nothing. It lit up but...nothing. He hesitated, pressing it again. Nothing. No shock.

"Greeaaaat. Greeaaaat. Greeaaaat." The HandiUnit murmured out, its own voice warbling now, repeating over and over as if it was some broken marionette who's mouth kept hanging open over and over. William frowned as the irritating voice from before, the "default" voice came back online. Evidently there was a problem with the voice synthesizer. It was going back to default settings, and it wanted William to check out Circus Baby.

William made his way into her auditorium, to the control room, looking about. Sure enough, it was just as dark as always, and yet ANOTHER ugly bobblehead was on display. He whacked it off the top of the control console and it flopped onto the ground as he frowned. He hated those stupid little boyish bobbleheads. He didn't much like boys, really. He preferred girls. They were so much more well-behaved...at least, over in England, here in America they were just as bratty as the boys.

And evidently Baby was being a brat today. She wouldn't appear on the stage as the light revealed nothing but the emptiness beyond.

"Oh, Circus Baby! We aren't here to play hide and seek! Let's encourage Baby to come out of hiding with a controlled shock!"

William pressed the red shock button as the red console lights slowly flickered on and off, and he blinked. Nothing was working in here either! He pressed it again and again...nothing. No shock.

"There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to motivate Baby! Please stand by while I reboot the system!" William cringed, realizing what HandiUnit was implying, knowing what a reboot meant for, after all, he'd helped design much of the place. If there was a reboot, that meant many systems would be down, from security doors, vent locks, oxygen...

BEEEEOOOOOO...all the lights shut off as everything went dark and dimly lit, only a faint light blue light from the fans above left to sparsely illuminate the room. William sighed as he folded his arms over his chest, standing in front of the main console and waiting.

"Motion trigger: entryway vent."

William felt a icy cold dagger stabbing into his spine as a horrific chill slowly made its way up his body like a spider slowly crawling.

"Funtime auditorium maintenance vent opened."

Oh no. Oh NO.

"Ballora gallery maintenance vent opened."

"Oh shite." William whispered, the faintly Rick-Astley-faced British man gasping as his hands flew to his mouth and he covered a harsh scream that was almost bubbling up from his throat. It couldn't be. It COULDN'T be, but there was simply nothing else he could think of that would make sense. The animatronics. It had to be some of the animatronics. And what else was small enough to vet into the vent? None of the others could with their large metal exteriors. Only another human could crawl in or one of those tinier animatronics like-

Did he just hear a giggle? Oh yes. He knew what those were. Those Bidybabs. The baby-esque animatronics he'd made almost as a joke that-

"I don't recognize you."

A voice. Soft and thoughtful, faintly pensive and distinctly female, oddly young with the faintest hint of metal in her tone, it drifted through the air.

"You are new. I remember this...scenario, however. It's a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I'm curious what events would lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this...willingly."

William looked about, his eyes wide as he found himself backing up against the control panel desk, head flicking about. Who on Earth was...?

"Maybe curiosity? Maybe ignorance? There is a space under the desk. Someone before you crafted it into a hiding place and it worked for him. I recommend that you hurry though. You will be safe there. Just...try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon. They will lose interest."

Realizing what the voice was implying, and faintly hearing the sound of giggling getting closer, William decided that the only thing he could think to do...was to climb inside. He crouched down, quickly scurrying on his hands and knees into the little hidey-hole that had been made out of the control panel. At some point, perhaps a spare battery had gone here, now it was just baaaarely big enough to fit in, with a hole-ridden cover to pull up as protection, but...no lock on either side. He cringed, drawing the cover in front of him, pulling it shut so he could hide away in the little makeshift spider hole of sorts that Circus Baby's control room had.

And sure enough, within a few minutes, he heard them. That awful giggling, and he could faintly see them through one of the holes in the cover of the little hidey hole. That faintly baby-esque frame, the pinkish and white body that made them look like a blend between a doll and a one year old, that little pinkish lip, reddish nose...the overly piercing purple eyes...

"Helloooo theeere?"

William sat still. He was SURE they were at the very edge of the hidey hole...and trying to peer in. He felt himself inwardly shudder, hearing their sickening giggling softly ringing through the room.

"Someone is inside! We always find a way inside!"

He could hear the cover being scraped...they were trying to force it open! He quickly grabbed hold of it and held it still, cringing, trying not to make a sound, trying to get the things to think the cover was just jammed. He kept it still, in place, cringing, wishing he hadn't made the animatronics so damn strong! If he could sit UP, stand up, hold it better than this, but being so cramped it was nigh-impossible to keep the cover from sliding away, and he knew, he KNEW if he let the thing slide, he would surely be ripped apart by those hateful little things.

He felt sweat beginning to drip slowly down his brow, and quivered with fear as he felt his grip beginning to lessen. The cover was going to give way soon if he didn't think of something, ANYTHING, and then...

...then...salvation.

"We have to leave now!"

He gaped. They were...leaving?

"But we'll see you again soon! Hee hee!"

He cringed, waiting for their giggling to fade away, waiting for the sound of them crawling through the vents to fade off into the distance and he finally breathed a sigh of relief when he was sure they were, at last, long gone.

And then, that woman's voice softly rang out. "When your "guide" comes back online, he is going to tell you he was unsuccessful, that you must restart the system mainly. He will then tell you to crawl through Ballora gallery as fast as you can to reach the breaker room."

"And I shouldn't?" William whispered back.

"If you follow his instructions...you will die." The voice informed him calmly, William flinching. "Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will catch you. The power will be restored shortly. When you crawl through Ballora gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you...and can only listen for your movement. When you hear her music growing louder, she is growing near."

"I remember." William mumbled softly.

"She will be listening for you. Wait...and be still."

"Thank you for your patience! It seems as though the power system cannot be restarted automatically." HandiUnit's voice suddenly rang out, almost cutting the womanly voice off as William made his way out of the crawlspace and dusted himself off, frowning at the PDA system. "You will need to restart the power system manually! Please return to the primary control module."

 **"I dislike you with the greatest intensity."** William muttered balefully as he made his way out of Circus Baby's control room, and back to the primary control room, stooping down by Ballora's Gallery vent. He cringed, taking in a deep breath as HandiUnit continued to speak.

"It is recommended you stay low to the ground and move fast as possible to reach the other side so as to not disturb Ballora. I will deactivate myself so as to not produce an auditory disturbance. Deactivating."

"Good. For the best answer is roughly SILENCE when they brawl." William snidely mumbled as he made his way through the vent, finding himself in the greyish/silver floored Ballora gallery and...faintly hearing her music. HER music. Her singing.

He used to love that about her. He'd programmed her to be refined and elegant, to have a voice so much like his own muse, and sometimes when he closed his eyes, he could almost see her at night, at times when he wasn't thinking of her, of his beloved baby. But now? Now, oh...now that voice only made a shudder rise in his throat as he inched across Ballora gallery, halting in place and keeping still and curled up across the cold floor.

 _ **"Why do you hiiide inside your waaaalls? When there is music in my haaaaaalls?"**_

William waited, hands digging into his hair, keeping his breath held in as the singing faded slightly off into the distance before he kept crawling forward, listening intently.

 _ **"Aaaaall I see is an empty roooooom...no more joy, an empty tooooomb..."**_

"I'm not making this MY tomb." William inwardly murmured as he kept crawling, halting in place as he heard her getting closer and halted as she spun RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS FACE. He could see her mesh blue booties twirling about, see the purple ballerina tutu she wore spinning, her hands held high above her head and eyes always, ALWAYS closed.

 _ **"It's so good to sing all daaaaay...to dance, to spin, to fly awaaaaaay..."**_

He waited...and waited. He watched her slowly spin off, and kept crawling forward, getting closer and closer to the door off in the distance. Still, he was making good progress. Slow but steady wins the r-

"It seems you are taking a long time! Please proceed as quickly and as quietly as possible!" The HandiUnit proclaimed as William stifled a surprised yelp, going stiff as a board as he heard the unmistakable sound of Ballora nearby...and heard her voice, no longer singing.

"Is someone there? Is it time for the show? I can hear someone creeping through my room..."

William held his breath. His hands gripped the floor as if it was a life raft he didn't dare let go of. His heart thumped so loudly he thought it would pound right out of his chest as he quivered in fear.

"...perhaps...not." Ballora murmured, giving off a soft sigh as she spun away again and William carefully made the final few yards towards the door, sliding inside and closing it as carefully and quietly as he could, making SURE the bloody thing locked behind him.

There, before him, was the dimly lit by red light breaker box. But close to the breaker box was...Funtime Freddy and his little Bonnie puppet.

Much like the other Funtime animatronics, Funtime Freddy was quite girly in color scheme, complete with white main "fur", a pink chest and knee and shoulder joints, cute little purplish cheeks and a pink muzzle, the adorable top hat that all the Freddies had, a microphone that they ALSO all had, but what made Funtime Freddy different was his little "Bon-Bon" puppet, a miniature version of Bonnie the Bunny in sock puppet form that was slid over his right hand. Bon-Bon had a light blue muzzle and chest, royal blue fur, rosy red cheeks and an adorable bow tie. The bow tie...bow ties made everything look cute.

Yet not even the black bow tie on Funtime Freddy nor the red bowtie on Bon-Bon could change how disturbingly they were illuminated by the faint flashes of light from the emergency light flickering overhead, almost creating a strobe light effect. William shuddered as he clutched the breaker controls and bit his lip. He was more sure than ever that the animatronics in the godforsaken place were ALL out and about, and intent on doing one thing and one thing alone: fulfilling their more darker functions.

He wasn't a helpless child, but...he'd do. He knew he'd do in a pinch. He turned to the breaker controls, and pressed the "RESTART" button on "Circus Control", intent on working his way down. Bit by bit, the power began to be restored, but before he could move onto the next room, "Circus Gallery", he turned.

Funtime Freddy was gone. His eyes widening, William quickly pressed the "Voice Command" on the breaker console.

"Calm down and go back to sleep! No one is here!" "Bon-Bon's" voice rang out from the breaker.

William cringed, hesitating...and Funtime Freddy suddenly began to nonchalantly make his way towards the stage he'd been on, William quickly trying to power up the room again. A few minutes later, Funtime Freddy's head seemed to turn towards his direction and he ducked behind the breaker once more, hiding in the shadows as he turned on the voice command again, his heart steadily pumping in his chest, throbbing in his eardrums.

"Go back to your stage! Everything is okay!"

Funtime Freddy turned around again, William waiting before resuming the power up process, but after another minute, he looked up and Funtime Freddy was gone. William hid behind a nearby power generator, taking in a deep breath as a faintly clownish, jovial, almost high-pitched voice rang out.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha! I know you're over there soooomewheeeere!"

William waited, cringing, panting a bit as he heard the THUMPA-THUMP of Funtime Freddy walking close by, passing by him. He crawled on his hands and knees towards the breaker controls, pressing the voice button once more.

"It's okay! I think it was just a mouse!"

William waited, Funtime Freddy sauntering towards the stage as William kept powering up the other rooms, and for a while...it appeared as though Funtime Freddy wasn't moving from his spot. Indeed, William kept peeking his head up at the spot where Funtime Freddy was...nope. Not moving one bit. Soon, all the rooms were powered up, and William wiped his brow, heading for the door when-

"Bon Bon, say hi to our friend!"

William froze in place, slowly turning around, eyes wide as Funtime Freddy cheerily waved at him with Bon-Bon waving too.

"Hey Bon-Bon, I think we found the birthday boy over there!" Funtime Freddy cheerily intoned, giving a "heave-ho" motion with his body, twisting a bit as he grinned cheekily at William. "We should go give him a surprise!"

Oh no you don't. OHHH no you don't!

William quickly shut the door behind him and closed it tightly, then BOLTED across Ballora gallery. It was as if all his energy had been saved up for this one moment in time, and he sprinted across the place with a speed that an Olympic athlete would have been proud of. Diving into the door at the other end, he shot towards it and was moments from slamming it shut behind him just as he heard a voice drift through the air.

"Is someone there?"

He froze. That had been almost right in back of him. He turned around, Ballora standing in place, slowly looking left and right, her voice lazily drifting out through the dark.

"...I can hear someone creeping through my room..." She murmured. "Or..."

She turned in HIS direction. "...perhaps...NOT."

A soft little laugh...and then Ballora spun away, William slooooowly inching open the door and closing it behind him. He knew it. He KNEW she'd sensed him. She knew he was there. Why had she let him go?

...did he really want to know?

...William decided he didn't want to know. All he wanted was to go home. Now.

...

...

...

..."As the sun sets, so also does another chapter in the saga of love lost between Vlad and his distressed mistress. Can they be reconciled? Can their love rise again? That and more, happening now!" The announcer on the "Immortal and the Restless" remarked as William nonchalantly munched on popcorn...or at least, tried to. The day's events had made his hand unsteady, and he kept dropping popcorn all over his lap.

"Clara, the baby isn't mine!" Vlad proclaimed.

"It IS, Vlad! They had trouble catching him in the nursery today!" Clara protested, putting her hands on her hips, shaking her head back and forth.

"So vhat?" Vlad snorted, waving a dismissive hand in the air. "Lots of keeds get hyper and run around and stuff!"

And boom! A shot of their baby with BAT WINGS.

"They had to knock him out of the air with a broom!" Clara said, looking incredibly aggravated, arms folded over her chest as Vlad made for the door.

"I have to go."

"They're going to dock your paychecks!"

"They can't do that to me, I'm a vampire! I don't keep paychecks!" Vlad laughed, shaking his head.

Clara snorted. "You work the graveyard shift at the Grimy Taco! Don't lie to me!"

"Why on Earth a Mexican restaurant?" William Afton mumbled. "Why not a McDonalds?...oh, who am I kidding? He's a Vampire, not a moron. Nobody would willingly work at McDonalds if they had the choice. Between my current job and working there, I'd STILL take dodging psychotic animatronics over a graveyard shift flipping burgers. At least the things I make at my current job are INTENDED to kill you eventually." He wryly mused, tossing a popcorn piece up into the air.

It got wedged in his eye. "OH FOR-GAAAAAAH!"

...

...

...

... _It's only four days until the party. I remember._

 _Adam was in his room once again but, luckily, the door hadn't been locked. Now he could get out. He sniffled a bit, wiping his snot on his rather lanky and skinny arms as he made his way out of his room. But as he approached the door, he could hear the familiar voice of Golden Freddy speaking to him._

 _"You know he is hiding again."_

 _Adam quietly nodded, biting into his lip and scuffing his shoe on the ground. Laughter rang through the air and echoed through the house, slightly low in tone, almost...muffled? Adam shuddered, he hated it when his brother hid and tormented him like this, giving off that awful creepy laughter that rang through the air, which always got closer and CLOSER until at last...BAM!_

 _"He won't stop until you find him." Golden Freddy urged young Adam as Adam took in a deep breath, screwing his courage to the sticking point as he made his way towards the hallway outside. He looked around, gazing at the hall, seeing the Grandfather Clock, humming the old tune that made him feel at ease. He was big into the "olde tyme" songs like My Grandfather's Clock and "Clementine" and other folksy tunes._

 _"My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf, so it stood ninety years on the flooooor..." Adam sang softly as he made his way across the deep, almost bottom-of-the-ocean blue carpet. "It was taller by half than the old man himself-"_

 _He entered his brother's room, gasping. An unmistakable animatronic...or rather, its pieces, laid on the floor. Pink head and muzzle, big, girly eyes, a would-be-animatronic head of a parrot meant to go on the shoulder...poor, poor, Mangle. "Funtime Foxy" had been taken apart so many times she now had a new name. And people kept stealing her from...THAT place. The bad place. The place his dad worked at, the place everyone else loved so much and he might have loved too if not for...them. Because they were so huge and so scary._

 _He knew his brother had done this. Adam shook his head, a mixture of anger and sorrow welling up in him, angry that his brother just kept doing things like this. He heard the laughter ringing through the air and he made his way back through the hall, towards the living room._

 _"I know you stole Mangle!" Adam yelled out as he passed over the circular orange rug just across from the gigantic blue couch that was next to the living room's television. "You big jerk! I know you stole him! You can't keep-"_

 _"BAAAAAAAAH!" An eerie, almost animalistic roar and Adam shrieked and curled up in a ball, weeping openly as his brother, wearing the head of Foxy, laughed uproariously, waving his hands in the air. He'd sprung out from behind the TV and was snickering madly now. "Gotcha good! AGAIN!"_

 _"You b-big j-j-jerk..." Adam managed to get out, blubberingly stuttering in between sobs as Jeremy snickered and walked off._

 _"God, you're such a crybaby." His big brother groaned, Golden Freddy's voice softly echoing in Adam's mind._

 _"Tomorrow is another day."_

He held the flashlight up, quivering as he stared down the hall. He'd been out to get a glass of water, so thirsty, so yearning for something to soothe his aching throat, and he'd seen it sitting there on the chair at the end of the hall. How? HOW had a chair gotten there, to the end of the hall? How had...this thing...gotten there? Who PUT it there!? He KNEW he didn't own a Golden Bonny plushie, aka a "Plushtrap"! And yet...

There it was. The wind softly blew through the barely-cracked open window in the back of Plushtrap as the decrepit, worn down yellow plushie stared back at him. Its eyes were open wide, its grin toothy and equally worn, its hands gripping the white chair's arm rests as its head lopped to the side. Its fur was frayed and tattered, its ears looking like someone had been gnawing on him, and...

And the teeth. The teeth were...oddly sharp. Too sharp. Adam shuddered as he held the flashlight up, quivering in fear. He knew he had to conserve the batteries on it, he needed it for...for when he had to deal with those things. The...large animatronics. The nightmares. Yet he didn't dare turn the flashlight off and head to bed, because he knew, he KNEW that if he left it off for too long?

Plushtrap would come for him. He could almost hear it, whispering to him from across the room.

"Come onnnn. Why are you so scared? I'm just a plushie. And even if I wasn't, what I would do isn't any worse than a bee sting. Come on. What would I want to do to a nice little boy like you...except bite. And BITE. AND BITE."

Adam gripped the flashlight like it was a baseball bat, holding it out in front of him, wishing he'd never gotten that glass of water. He quivered and shook, Plushtrap continuing to stare at him with glossy eyes.

He held it there...inching forward. He took a deep breath, the chill from the air outside filling his lungs as it wafted through the slightly opened window. He inched closer, closer, intending to break for the hallway to the right and race to his room. Yet as he got closer, the flashlight flickered.

Oh no. OH NO. Was this thing effecting the flashlight?

He turned it off for a few moments, then flashed it back on. Plushtrap had fallen slightly off the chair. Adam shuddered, cringing as he turned the flashlight off, then on. Plushtrap was now back inside the chair, and its head was tilted the other way, as if amused, waiting for Adam's next move.

"You're NOT...moving." Adam whispered. "Y-You're...you're n-not...m-muh-moving." He muttered, taking another step closer. Flashlight off, flashlight on. Flashlight off, flashlight on. Plushtrap stayed still. Flashlight off, flashlight on.

Now Plushtrap was off the chair again, sitting on the floor. It looked squarely into Adam's eyes, and it grinned even more wildly than Adam thought possible...

And it gave its teeth a CLAK as it bite down on the air.

Adam shrieked, bolting for the hall, tearing down the hallway and racing into his room, slamming it shut. He panted and heaved, holding the flashlight to his chest as it quickly rose and fell, tears brimming in his eyes. "I hate those things...I hate them so much..." He whispered.

And then he heard it. The sound of something THUMPA-THUMPA-THUMPING towards his room from down the hall. He raced towards the left side of the room, holding the door open with a long creak and turning on the flashlight. His hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he faintly saw something yellow slide back into the hallway, trying to stay out of sight. Something yellow and LARGE. Not Plushtrap, no. Something worse.

He quivered slightly, then shut the door as he heard the sound of that monstrous thing getting closer. He recognized it. Oh yes. He'd seen the briefest of glimpses of what laid on its chest. An all-too-familiar bib.

Chica. Chica the Chicken.

"Come on out!" An almost motherly voice cheerily intoned. "Come out, sweetie. I got a cupcake right here!" Her faintly matronly voice drifted out through the air from the other side of the door. "Let's eat..."

A BANG on the door.

"YOU." 

Sadistic giggling that was far, FAR too high pitched to be hers. Laughing ringing out from a psychotic cupcake that wanted to feast on his flesh.

"I used to love cupcakes." Adam whimpered pitifully, holding the door shut as tightly as he could as Chica nonchalantly knocked on the door again.

"You're not being very nice. I think maybe a little time in the oven would cheer you up, my dear. We can have such fun! After all, you're such a sweet little child. And I'll bet you'll be a very chewy one too."

Adam swore if he ever got out of this he'd NEVER eat another chicken dinner or have eggs for breakfast ever again. He held the door shut, panting in fear, until, at last...he could no longer hear her breathing. He raced to the other side, peeking out the end. Nothing. Then he whipped back towards the bed.

His flashlight scared the monstrous, horrific would-be mini freddies off, but then a sudden fear came to him. The closet. He hadn't checked that in a while. He raced towards it, slowly peering in...

And slamming it shut. The muzzle was bony, the eyes a horrific, burning goldish red. It appeared to have TWO sets of jaws, its flesh a patchwork of rotting fur and flesh, a horrific scar running up its right eye over its skull. Foxy, once his favorite animatronic of all, was looking at him with nothing but hunger.

He slammed the door shut, keeping it tightly held together as he heard the unmistakable sound of a hook sloooowly being scraped down the door and it left a sickening screeching sound that filled his ears. "Let me out, boyo." The familiar piratey tone of Foxy intoned, that all-too-recognizable drawl making it obvious what kind of person the animatronic was. "Let me out, lad. Be a good lil' first mate and I won't plunge me hook into you. I'll just bite...and BITE...AND BITE. Aren't I kind?"

"Th-that doesn't sound very nice!" Adam squeaked out.

"Pirates aren't known fer bein' nice, matey." Foxy whispered back through the flimsy closet door as it shuddered and shook. "Nahhh. Pirates are known for pillagin'. And KILLIN'. Gotta make the most of things, for the life of a pirate is shooooooo-ooooort." Fox sang out whimsically as Adam cringed, almost hyperventilating as the hook ran sloooooowly down the closet door. "And so will yer own laddy, if ya don't let me out."

"You're not...not there! N-Not there!" Adam whispered to himself, shaking his head rapidly back and forth. "You are not there, not there, I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS, I DON'T BELIEVE IT AT ALL-"

He tossed the door open...

Nothing.

Nothing but shadows and dust.

...for now.


	3. The Nightmare Continues

_"Daddy, just ONCE let me go play with her. She's so pretty and shiny! Didn't you make her just for me?"_

"Welcome back to another pivotal night of your thriving career, where you really get to ask yourself...what am I doing with my life? What will my friends say? And most importantly: will I ever see my family again?"

"Go **fuck** yourself." William Afton snarled. He...was mad. He was beginning to seriously hate this damn HandiUnit.

"We understand the stresses of a new job, and we're here for you! To help you reach a more stable and relaxing frame of mind, we offer several musical selections to make this elevator ride as relaxing and therapeutic as possible! We offer contemporary jazz...classical, rainforest ambiance, as well as a variety of other choices!"

Once more, the keypad shot up And once MORE...the thing wasn't working.

"You couldn't be bothered to have another technician fix this thing?" William mumbled, taking a deep breath as he lit up a cigarette and groaned. "UGHHHHHHH." He just bopped a spot on the keypad as the music in the elevator switched...

...to Casual Bongos.

"...fine." He decided with a shrug, just bouncing his head a little to the bongoes. "Not so bad. I've heard worse." He admitted as the elevator slowly came to a halt.

"Now that your elevator experience has been customized to your needs and you're thoroughly relaxed, it's worth noting that due to your lackluster performance yesterday, your pay has been cut a substantial amount. Please enjoy the rest of your descent."

"...OH YOU FUCKING-" William shrieked.

...

...

...

...having now embedded the HandiUnit keypad two feet deep into the wall of the elevator and feeling MUCH better, William made his way into the main control room, hearing the HandiUnit...now slightly muffled, which made him smile...speak over the PDA.

"Due to complications during daytime parties, your duties tonight will require you to perform maintenance you may or may not be skilled to perform. It became necessary for technicians to disconnect Funtime Freddy's power module. However, they were unsuccessful. Allowing them to try again would be an inefficient path forward, as we need to allow six to eight weeks for recovery and physical therapy."

William froze up in the control room, gripping one of the shock stands so tightly his knuckles turned white.

...they were lashing out at the technicians now.

...they really were aware...and they weren't holding back anymore. And now he had to go to the parts and services room across Funtime Auditorium. To go into Funtime Foxy's place. He took in a deep breath before checking on Ballora.

Yep. There she was, on the stage. Now for Funtime Foxy.

"It's important to make sure she's on her stage before entering!" HandiUnit remarked, William turning on the light, with Funtime Foxy conspicuously absent.

"...great! It looks as though everything is as it should be in Funtime Auditorium!"

"She's very clearly not there. I KNOW you can hear me!" William snapped.

"There is no need to check on Baby tonight. Do not go into unauthorized areas. Proceed directly to Funtime Auditorium."

"...I'm done listening to you." William grumbled as he made his way into Baby's circus stage, looking around the dark expanse. He glanced about, biting his lip, before getting an idea. A way to show that he trusted Baby's advice. He carefully slunk into the little makeshift grate below the control panel, closing the spotty grate up...

And Baby's voice drifted through the air.

"You came to see me?" She said wistfully. "That's so nice!" A hesitation, and then...

"...I've said that before. Did you know I was only on stage once?" She asked quietly.

"...really?" William inquired.

"It wasn't for very long. Only one day. What a wonderful day though. I was in a small room with balloons and a few tables. Nobody sat at the tables, but children ran in and out. Some were afraid of me, others enjoyed my songs. Music was always coming from somewhere else, down the hall. I would always count the children. I'm not sure why. I was always acutely aware of how many there were in the room." Baby went on, her tone becoming thoughtful, introspective as William gripped his knees, listening carefully.

...he knew what day she was talking about.

He knew EXACTLY what day Circus Baby was talking about.

"Two, then three, then two, then three, then four, then two, then none. They usually played together in groups of two or three. I was covered in glitter! I smelled like birthday cake! There were two, then three, then five, then four! I can do something special! Did you know that? I can make ice cream!"

"...yes...kids...kids love ice cream." William mumbled quietly, burying his face in his knees.

"But I only made it once. There were four, then three, then two, then one. Something happened when there was one. A little girl, standing by herself. I was no longer...MYSELF...and I stopped singing." Circus Baby murmured, her tone becoming...confused. Unsure. "My stomach opened, and there was ice cream. I couldn't move, at least not until she stepped closer. There...there was screaming for a moment. But only for a moment."

William's hands dug into his legs.

"Then other children rushed in again, but they couldn't hear her over the sounds of their own excitement. I still hear her sometimes. Why...did that happen?"

William had no answer.

...

...

...

...he stepped forward into the dark recesses of Funtime Foxy's auditorium. He knew she was motion-activated, which was why they kept the room dark, so as to not accidentally activate her. The HandiUnit had dropped off a circular flash beacon that was faintly like a video camera with a classic flashbang-esque flash on it, and he held it up like a magic talisman, taking in a deep breath as the HandiUnit kept a-droning on and on over the PDA.

"Use it as sparingly as possible. Proceed forward to reach the parts and service room."

He cringed...but inched forward. Bit by bit, he moved further, one moment at a time. He halted in place, faintly hearing something moving through the dark, using the flash.

Funtime Foxy was off to his right, and he stayed stock still, her pink and white body glancing about. He could hear her scuttling away, almost like a gigantic cockroach as he cringed, and waited for a few moments before slinking forward again. Further...further.

He stopped, sensing it was close, and used the flash once more. Funtime Foxy was now right in front of him, and he stayed stock still as its face gazed at him. Don't move. It couldn't see him if he didn't move. It's eyes sloooowly turned about, head shifting left and right as he remained still as the grave, quietly looking Funtime Foxy over, waiting for it to hiss and leap and pounce and tear...

But instead, it crouched back down, and made its way off to another corner of the auditorium, and he slowly slid into the parts and services room, closing the door and turning to look at the conveyor belt before him.

Funtime Freddy was there, the Bon-Bon puppet on its hand as William sighed. Alright...time to get this over with. Just nice and quick.

"Funtime Freddy is out of power, which should make your job much easier. The release switch for the chest cavity is located on the endoskeleton jaw. To reach it, we will first need to open the face plate. You will need to press the release triggers in a specific order, and it's important to be as precise as possible."

"I know, I designed them after all." William muttered as he pressed a tiny little white button, just baaaarely visible, right under his right cheek. Poink! Then he pressed the button under the left cheek. Now it was time to press the button next to the right eye. Poink! And now the last button on the face, the one that opened the face plates.

Poink!

PSSSHHH! A hiss, and the face plates shot open, revealing bony teeth and stretches of tubing and coils and wires within. Funtime Freddy's endoskeleton face was on display and William cracked his neck, pressing the button on the underside of the endoskeleton jaw, opening up the chest cavity, showing off the small, battery-shaped power module in the central chest cavity that faintly looked like the center of a sun, wires all connecting to it like rays.

He quickly removed it, his flashlight lowering slightly as he deposited the power module into his pocket. "Okay, now for you, Bon-" He began to say, turning the flashlight towards Funtime Freddy's hand...

Stopping in place. Bon-Bon...was gone.

"Oh shite." William thought, hearing Bon-Bon's soft giggle. He whipped the flashlight in its direction, Bon-Bon ducking behind Funtime Freddy's shoulder. He frowned at this, hearing the rotten giggling echoing through the dark recesses of the room.

"I just wanna _play_!"

William took in a deep breath. Calm down, he thought, looking over Funtime Freddy, sanning with his flashlight, seeing Bon-Bon out of the corner of his eye. He whipped the flashlight in the direction of Bon-Bon, but it ducked behind the waist, behind Funtime Freddy once again, and William cringed. How was he going to press the button underneath Bon-Bon's little tie and freeze him in place to remove the power module?

"Can't catch me!" Bon-Bon giggled out. "Silly-willy."

Of course. He was a petulant child. And the best way to deal with a child that was so whiny and impatient...was to let them burn themselves out. And pretend you weren't paying attention. They'd get bored...and sloppy.

He nonchalantly looked away, and took out a cigarette, humming to himself as Bon-Bon frowned, slooowly poking its head out from behind the shoulder. What the? He was smoking in here?

"C'mon! I wanna plaaaaay!"

William just lit up the cigarette and took a long drag, slowly blowing a ring of smoke into the air as Bon-Bon kept inching out, further and further behind Funtime Freddy's right shoulder. More...more...

"GOTCHA!" William roared out with delight, pressing the black button right underneath Bon-Bon's red tie as Bon-Bon gasped.

"No f-"

And with that, he froze in place, William grinning as he removed the power module, sticking it into his pocket. "Heh. Little shite. Can't pull one over on me." He remarked, making for the door and opening it up...

Funtime Foxy standing there, yellow/golden eyes a-glimmering as she cheekily grinned, her faceplates splitting open to reveal the fanged, toothy endoskeleton beneath.

"I AGREE." She whispered as William screamed, feeling her slamming him to the floor with her clawed hands, fanged roar echoing in his ears as his head hit tile...

And he remembered nothing more.

ELSEWHERE...

 _Three Days Until the Party..._

 _Most would have found it to be a place of joy. A burst of sunshine in an otherwise drab and dreary and underwhelming location. The balloons floated about in the air, tied to tables as confetti nonchalantly fluttered down every once and a while from the ceiling above. Streamers sloped down from the ceiling to the floor, and the big, goofy, cheery face of Golden Freddy happily smiled at everyone in the room._

 _Yes, the diner should have been a place of joy. But all Adam could do was quietly sob under the table, arms wrapped around his knees as he cried into the pale blue, confetti-covered carpeting. Sob...because what should have been manageable had turned bad so quickly when he realized that..._

 _"He left without you."_

 _Adam sniffled, Golden Freddy's voice softly whispering through the air as he tried to muster up his courage. "Y-Yeah...I know."_

 _"He knows you hate it here."_

 _"...yeah..."_

 _"You're right beside the exit. If you run, you can make it home. Make it before dark."_

 _"Y-You're right. I...I gotta be brave." Adam tried to insist to himself, rising up, dusting himself off and wiping his eyes on his arm as the slightly lanky kid stared at the big red exit door just down the hall. "I gotta be brave. I gotta be brave!"_

 _"Hurry. Run towards the exit."_

 _He made his way towards the door..._

 _But there he was. Golden Freddy in the furry flesh, microphone and all. "Uh-huh-huh-huh! Hiya kiddo! Golden Freddy's here to wish all the kids a happy funtime in Freddy's!"_

 _Adam's eyes went wide as monster truck tires and his mouth hung open in pure terror before he took a startled, shaky step back._

 _"It's too late. Hurry the other way and find someone who will help! You know what will happen if he catches you!" Golden Freddy's voice whispered in his head as the monster came closer. Adam let out a yelp, and his little legs bolted, making across the room like lightning._

 _He saw the shadows...faintly purplish in tone and spread over the grey walls, but he took in a deep breath, clenching his fists tightly as he raced across the floor. "You can find help if you can get past them. You have to be strong."_

 _"Gotta be strong. I have to be strong." Adam kept repeating like a mantra, over and over again, taking a step forward...until he saw the shadow's owner look right in his direction. Saw the silver eyes and...and..._

 _"Kid, y-you okay?" The man in the Golden Freddy suit asked softly, Adam sobbing uncontrollably under the table as the guy nervously looked around. "Hey, we got a really upset kid here! C-Can someone help me?!" He cried out, Adam unable to hear anything, not even his own sobs. Unable to hear anything...but Golden Freddy's soft whisper._

 _"...tomorrow is another day."_

The...things...kept appearing on his bed. Those horrible, razor-toothed, bobbleheaded monsters. They kept popping up again and again on his bed, every time he turned away from it too long. Head sashaying about, almost cheerily smiling, eyes soulless and foul, burning little white fires in the eyesockets as Adam shuddered, seeing them shoot back under his bed.

He tried very hard not to think about them as he made his way to the closet, and the horrific and scarred muzzle of Foxy glared back at him, mouth agape with razor sharp teeth as his piratey voice echoed through the room, Adam slamming the door to the closet shut. "Aw, don't be like that, matey. Foxy just wants ta play a game with ya! I calls it "Dead Men Tell No Tales"!"

"You're! NOT! THERE!" Adam repeated, trying to summon up his courage, flashing the flashlight back into the room, Foxy now almost...shrinking back, no longer crouched and ready to pounce but...almost curled up, arms around his legs. "YOU'RE! NOT! THERE!" He yelled out, flashing it again, and now Foxy was dejectedly standing all the way up, head bowed. "YOU! ARE NOT! THERE!" Adam screamed...

And now it was just a soft, cute little Foxy plushie with an eyepatch and the most adorable smile you'd ever seen. Adam picked it up, taking in a few deep breaths as he squeezed it over once.

"Ahoy!" It squeaked out, Adam feeling a quiet little tear sneak down his cheek as he put it back in the closet, wiping his nose on his pajama arm and turning back to the bed, dispelling the monstrous mini-Freddys...just as he heard thumping. A familiar footstep thumping. He barreled towards the right door, peering out the edge.

Freddy himself. At long last...Freddy had come. And he looked just as foul and awful as the others. His eyes were a burning orangish red, his mouth agape with fangs like daggers, two rows of teeth and sharp claws like drills. His fur was worn and torn and rotting away, and...and Adam could see where the bobbleheads came from now.

...they were SPAWNING OUT OF FREDDY. One after another, they slipped out from his very body, sliding out from his frame like rats slinking out of a lake, teeth gnashing and hissing as Freddy's segmented hand reached up and took off his little black top hat, giving Adam and extra-toothy smile. His belly would have shook like a bowl full of jelly had it not clearly been separated from the upper section, revealing the spine holding it up.

"Why, hello there Birthday Boy. Are you ready...for Freddy?"

Adam shut the door so hard he thought he almost broke it. He shook, sweat dripping down his cheeks and brow as he heard Freddy's deep, calm voice echoing from the other end of the door.

"Adam, my boy...open the door. Open the door. Don't you want me to sing you a birthday song?" Nightmare Freddy calmly intoned.

"Y-You didn't b-bring yuh-your microphone!" Adam stammered out, trying to find some humor in all this. Funny the things you remembered when utter terror was digging its claws deep into you.

Claws were scraping down the door, making Adam shudder again. "I THINK I left it in your room. Be a good lad and open up?" Freddy's deep voice intoned.

"I d-d-don't like liars!" Adam yelled back. "You g-g-get lost or-or I'm gonna get my b-b-bat and-and beat you up!"

"Adam, you and I both know you have no bat in there. You have a flashlight. A very strong, police-issue flashlight that your father left you, a gift from his workplace...but no baseball bat. And you and I both know you don't stand a chance against me." Freddy remarked calmly. "This nightmare will never end for you. Not really."

"YOU GO AWAY!" Adam screamed, gripping the door as he banged the flashlight on it, tears streaming down his face. "GO AWAY, GO AWAY, GO AWAY!" He howled, continuing to bang against the door. "GO AWAY!"

Thump...thump...thump. Slowly retreating steps.

"GO AWAY...Go away...go...away..."

And then...silence, save for Adam's soft, quiet sobbing, knowing the nightmare wasn't even half over for him. If at all.  
 _  
"...go away..."_


	4. The Nightmare's New Twist

_"He hates you."_

 _Adam kept crying, arms curled around his legs, softly sobbing over and over. He could think of no other reason why his brother Jeremy was so cruel to him._

 _"You have to get up." Golden Freddy's voice intoned gently in Adam's head as he struggled to rise to his feet, crawling out from under the table, sniffling pitifully as he wiped his nose on his arm. "You can get out this time. But you have to hurry."_

 _Adam wiped his nose again, looking over towards the stage. The faint smell of birthday cake was almost tempting, and for a few brief minutes he found himself stepping towards it, almost wanting to get lost in the soft, gentle haze of the diner, to sink into the warm embrace of soft sounds and streamers and balloons-_

 _"NO! Don't you remember what you saw!?" Golden Freddy's voice hurriedly whispered in his mind as Adam flinched, and a sight off in the distance began to make its way out past the red curtains...towards the stage, to take their place. "The exit is the other way! Hurry and leave!"_

 _Racing off in the other direction, he pushed through the red doors, glancing about. An orange and green car were parked in front of the entrance to the diner, with a cheery Golden Freddy painted on the blue walls, a little brown-haired child with a green t-shirt that had a red heart on the front standing nearby. He was playing with a Plushtrap doll, tossing it up into the air and catching it, his eyes deep and blue as he looked over Adam._

 _"Where's your plush toy?" Bernard inquired with a little smile as he held up his own. "Mine's Spring Bonnie!" Little "Bernie" as everyone knew him held up his Spring Bonnie, shaking the head a bit before tilting it back so it "spoke", Bernie using a much deeper voice. "Muh Daddy says I gots to be reaaaal careful with 'im, or imma pinch mah fingah"!" Bernie chuckled._

 _Adam nervously looked at the plushie, quietly biting his lip, trying not to think of how...creepy...he found the thing's overly sharp, tiny teeth to be._

 _"He's a finger trap!" Bernie laughed, poking Spring Bonnie's plushie in the nose before suddenly going "AAAA! AAAAA!" He cried out, flopping onto the ground. "MY FINGER! AAAA!"_

 _Adam let out a gasp and a shriek, yelping as he shot back, panting and hitting the nearby orange car, stabling himself against it before Bernie slowly turned around...smiling, showing he hadn't actually been bitten. "Just kidding!" Bernie laughed. "I'm real careful. See you later, Adam!" He said cheerily, Adam nervously laughing before making his way out of the parking lot and towards the sidewalk, past yellow golden flowers where a girl with braided hair was looking over some._

 _"Hi Adam." The girl said, her green eyes gazing up at Adam, wearing a red dress and orange shirt as she fiddled with the petals of the flower, eyes closed, just...feeling over the petals. "...I like the texture of the flowers. They feel nice. They feel as pretty as they look." She sighed, hanging her head. "Sometimes..." The Hispanic girl confessed, feeling over her skin. "I wish I had the light skin of the other girls in school. Then I could look like a flower and not like a stem that's rotted away." She mumbled quietly._

 _Adam nervously rubbed the back of his neck, then spoke. "I think your eyes are really nice, Chita" He admitted. "I love the color green. Green's nice and spring-y. None of the animatronics are green. If they were I might like them more."_

 _"I hear weird things about them. You'd better watch out." Conchita confessed, her green eyes becoming wide as saucers as she looked about. "I hear they come to life at night. Scary, huh? And...and if you die, I...I heard they hide your body and never tell anyone." She murmured, nervously gripping the petals on the flower so hard they began to tear, Chita shaking slightly, Adam gulping a bit. "I m-mean, it's just stuff I hear the adults in the place saying sometimes, and they always say they're just saying it to scare us but...I don't think that's really all true." Chita murmured as Adam walked down the sidewalk, hands buried in his pockets. "Anyway, d-don't look so worried!" Chita laughed. "Yeah, s-see you at the party!" She insisted. "Ha ha ha! I can't wait for the cupcakes and stuff!"_

 _He'd heard that before. She loved herself cake. He could go for some cake right now. He'd feel better about everything. He made his way further down the sidewalk, a preteen sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, drinking a bottle of coke and chuckling as he saw Adam approach, letting out a very deep laugh. "Aren't you the kid who always hides under under the table and cries?"_

 _Adam flinched. He recognized this kid with the short-cut brown hair perfectly slicked back, the stubby little nose, the ugly green t-shirt that made a mockery of Adam's favorite color. Yes, this kid was Ford. His brother was much nicer, though more annoying, yet Adam was honestly not sure which one he was more bothered by. Ford was up-front about being the kind of jovial jock that got people to gravitate towards him, yet at the same time, want to keep an arm's length. All his jokes were funny...until he began mocking you._

 _"Hahahaha! No one else is scared!" Ford told Adam with a shake of his head. "So why are you? Stop being such a little baby!" He said, leaning back on the nearby fence and sipping his coke some more. "They're just animatronics, they can't hurt you!"_

 _"E-Easy for-for you to say!" Adam mumbled as Ford rolled his eyes._

 _"Oh, c'monnnn. You can't be scared of them. There's stuff WAAAAY worse to be scared of." Ford said. "I've seen it." He remarked with a disturbingly dark tone as he sipped his soda. "...in the back of that restaurant. Hmm. Maybe you DO have a reason to hide under the table and cry!" He remarked with a faintly wry laugh, chuckling as he made his way down the street. "Ha ha ha ha!"_

 _Adam cringed, making his way further down the sidewalk and closer to his house, seeing Ford's brother Broderick, or "Broddy", sitting on the sidewalk. "Wanna...balloon?" Broddy asked, holding up a green balloon, a pink one in his own stubby little hand, but then the wind blew suddenly, and the balloon shot forth, flying through the air as Broddy gripped the other one tightly. "OH! Fuddy duddy!" Broddy moaned._

 _"S'alright." Adam sighed sadly as Broddy sat near his parent's blue car not too far from his OWN house. "It's nice t-to see you, B-Buh-Broddy."_

 _"So you're going to the party, right? Everyone in the neighborhood's goin' to the party." Broddy said in his usual excited voice, hopping up and down, big belly flopping beneath his big red shirt. "Oh, wait! You have to go, it's YOUR birthday, right? Ha ha! Silly me!" Broddy said. "I forgot its you AND your brother's birthday. Well, sorta. Why do you and your brother share the same day?"_

 _"He was born eight y-years buh-buh-before me but s-s-same d-duh-day." Adam stuttered out. "So he gets t-to celebrate at night with p-party and I get d-day party." He murmured, hurredly walking towards his house._

 _"Well I can't wait! Really!" Broddy called out cheerily, giving off that overly big, rosy grin in that annoyingly highpitched voice that didn't match his tubby frame at all as Adam headed inside his house, into the living room._

 _"Be careful." Golden Freddy whispered, Adam looking around the living room...was the coast clear? He inched further and further into the house...nothing. Nobody was in the living room. Breathing a sigh of relief, he made his way towards his room-_

 _"GRAAAAAAAAH!" His brother cried out, shooting out from underneath the bed, Adam shrieking, falling onto the floor and curling into a ball, sobbing as Jeremy sniggered at all this, Golden Freddy's voice softly drifting through the air..._

 _"Tomorrow is another day..."_

* * *

"...balloons...she...can make balloons..." William Afton softly murmured, mouth slowly muttering as his eyes clutched more shut, more tightly, more intensely.

 _"Daddy, she can make balloons! Have you seen her make balloons? Daddy, let me go to her!"_

"Baby, you can't, it's not safe, not..." William muttered before suddenly realizing his surroundings were...cold? He shuddered, eyes shooting open wide.

"Shh. Be still. And QUIET." Circus Baby's voice rang out softly through the deep dark that enveloped William as he stayed stock still. He...wasn't dead?! How in the...how?

"You've been sleeping for quite a while." Her voice murmured, almost right next to his ear in whatever he was sitting upright in. As he looked about with his eyes, he had the faint realization he was inside of a...a suit. An animatronic that had had its insides scooped out. "I think they noticed that you never left the building last night. The cameras were searching for you. But they couldn't find you. I have you hidden too well. _I kidnapped you!_ " Baby excitedly whispered.

"...why?" William asked. "I thought...I mean, Funtime Foxy..."

"I took care of that. Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm only going to keep you for a little while. Try not to wiggle though. You're inside something that came from my old pizzeria. I don't think it was ever used..." Circus Baby confessed as her tone gained a faintly _sinister_ edge.

"At least...not the way it was MEANT to be used. Too dangerous."

He instantly knew what suit this was. The Golden Freddy suit. The one that had been upon the stage, the new and fancy model that had been tried out, that special springlocked one. And in a way, it HADN'T been used properly. And in another way...it had. All too well. And he would know, after all. They were meant to do exactly. What. They. Were. Supposed. To.

William took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself as Circus Baby continued.

"It's juuuust big enough for one person to fit inside. But juuuuuuuuuuuust barely." She added with a faint giggle. "Do you know where you are? You're in the scooping room. Do you know why they call it the scooping room?"

"...no." William mumbled.

"It's because, _dummy_ , this is the room where they use the scooper. I thought that would be obvious. Isn't that a funny name for something?  
The scooper?" It sounds like something you would use for ice cream." Baby said, her sarcastic, faintly sinister tone becoming almost wistful again. "Or custard. Or sprinkles. It sounds like something you'd want at your birthday party, to make sure you get a heaping portion of every good thing! I wonder though...if you were a freshly opened pint of ice cream? How would you feel about something with that name?" Baby added as William felt a disturbed chill rise up his back as he tried to surpress shudders. "...thankfully I don't think a freshly opened pint of ice cream feels anything at all."

William wondered if that was really true, and he was about to say something when Baby let out a gasp. "Uhoh. It sounds like someone else is in the building! Shhh!"

William stayed stock still, hearing someone announcing to "set it down" as he tried to look out the sockets of his suit as best he could. "Watch the step." The first person said.

"What happened this time? Seems like these things can't go a day without breaking down!"

"Who knows? Hardware malfunction or whatever, let's get outta here. Don't wanna be here more than fifteen minutes. This place gives me the creeps." The first guy mumbled. "Just put it on the rollers and we can go." He went on as something began to be escorted right in front of him on a...conveyor belt, perhaps? And he realized what it was...

Ballora. The Ballora animatronic! She was being put into the scooping room with him, and halted in place. He could faintly see her from the faaaaint light off by the doorway in the Scooping Room, faintly seeing her face as he heard Circus Baby's soft whisper.

"There's something verrrrry important I've learned how to do over time. Do you know what that is? How...to pretend." Circus Baby softly crooned out to William as he remained stock still. "Do you ever play make believe? Pretend to be one way...when you are really the other? It's very important! Ballora never learns. But **I** do! They think there is something wrong on the inside. The only thing that matters...is knowing...how...to..." Circus Baby trailed off, her every word growing softer, quieter. "Pretend."

And then...a blaring alarm. And...

KRA-THRUNK! Ballora shook.

KRA-THRUNK! Her body shuddered.

KRA-THRUNK! And now her endoskeleton flopped out of the metal frame and just...stared at him, drooped over slightly as if she'd been shot in the head, and was sightlessly gazing at her killer, the eyeball flickering softly.

"I'll open the face-plates for you. That way they can find you on the cameras. Now all you have to do is wait. I'd recommend you keep the springlocks wound up. Your breathing and heartbeat are causing them to come loose. You don't want them to get too loose..." Circus Baby added softly. "TRUST me."

William gulped, realizing he could only really move his head. Still, it was better than nothing. He took hold of the springlocks with his teeth, grabbing one and turning it. Twist, twist, twist. Twist, twist, tw-

He froze.

Something was...moving. Moving away from Ballora and...towards him. He stiffened in shock, and cringed. It was one of those things she danced with, the "Minireenas". Little music box-esque dancers with...faintly skeletal puppet heads and oddly piercing gleaming golden eyes. And it was crawling out of Ballora's emptied out body...and over him, like a spider trying to crawl onto an unsuspecting, sleeping victim.

It was moving slowly, silkily, cautiously...but he wiggled a bit, trying to shake it off and it flopped off with a faint squeak...but the screw he'd untightened began to retighten again. He quickly moved his head once more and began unscrewing it, then turned to another one, unscrewing that.

More faint shifting and he looked down, seeing more crawling over him. He had to be careful. He shook juuust enough to get this next one off as it's tiny hand brushed just against his cheek, and it flopped down, falling to the floor as he began unscrewing another lock from his costume. The Minireenas softly whispered in the darkness, talking softly amongst themselves in faint giggles and laughs. He cringed, but tried to ignore their eerie, almost childlike laughter.

And more and more were coming. More were making their way towards him, crawling over him, giggling. He could feel their bodies moving over his covered frame, hear their laughter, mockingly echoing through the darkness, one began to rise up to his face...

And then the lights flicked on, and salvation came, the engineers from before sweeping the Minireenas away as William breathed a sigh of relief.

...

...

...

... "I've never, EVER longed for popcorn more." William Afton sighed as he eagerly shoveled handfuls of buttered popcorn into his mouth, munching away.

"As the moon rises, so also rises the tension between sworn lovers!" The narrator proclaimed as another episode of immortal drama played out on his television, William chuckling a bit, never more grateful in his entire life to hear that familiar voice.

"Clara, it's not my baby!"

"Vlad, you suck!"

"Wait, was that a vampire joke? That was SO lame, Clara! Like I haven't heard that a million times!" The vampire groaned, rolling his eyes and waving a dismissive hand in the air.

"Okay, well how's this? I'm taking the car!" Clara said with a pouted lip, arms folded as they stood at the base of the hill, their house off in the distance and off-screen as Vlad smirked.

"The joke's on you, it's a rental!"

"Well the joke's on you! I set the the thermostat to 90 before I left!"

"Good!" Vlad snorted as he turned away from her, folding his arms over his chest as Clara smirked herself. "I like it warm!"

"Good! Because I also set the house on fire!" She roared, Vlad letting out a yelp as he gaped in surprise at the scene before him. Sure enough, his lovely mansion was a burning inferno as William snorted, laughing so hard the bowl of popcorn spilled all over himself as he giggled madly.

"Hahahahahaha! Ohhh, it's good to LAUGH." He confessed. "And be far away from those animatronics. To sleep in my own bed..." He wistfully sighed. "...that's the greatest gift of all after this week I've had. A bloody awful week."

And yet, someone else was having a worse week. Adam was, in his slumber, in the same position as William had been. He remembered that night all too well...

 _Trapped in a room with robot corpses. Their heads all gazing at him and a rotten, horrific smell wafted through the air as Adam gripped his legs tightly, pitifully whimpering. Why? WHY did it smell so bad in here? Like something had crawled into the room and died?_

 _"Please let me out..." Adam whimpered. "...PLEASE!" he sobbed, pounding against the steely door, tears trickling down his cheeks as the smell got worse and worse and he turned, looking at the slumped over golden suit._

 _...a suit that...had..._

 _ **hair** sticking out of the top and...smelled like salty iron. A smell so horrible and so close and..._

 _...flies landing softly on top._

 _"PLEAAAAAASE!" Adam screamed out, banging his tiny fists against the door, now understanding what he'd seen that day, sobbing as he banged and banged on the door, his eyes welling up with terror and tears. "Please!...please...l-let me...out..." He whimpered, flopping to his knees, face buried against the door. "...let...me...let me out..." Adam sobbed._

 _But Adam was left alone. Left alone in the storage room._

 _...left alone with the dead._


	5. The Nightmare Ends?

_Daddy wasn't watching..._

"...Daddy wasn't good enough. Daddy wasn't...smart enough." William Afton murmured as his head slightly hung in the elevator as it descended down to the floor. He heard the HandiUnit speaking over the PDA, but he wasn't truly LISTENING. He was lost in his own little world.

"Welcome to your last day on the job. That is the last day of your first week!"

"...why couldn't I have programmed Circus Baby to just shut down when she came within five feet of her?"

"Some of the most valued qualities we like to see in new employees are determination, fearlessness, and a genuine disregard for instinctive self-preservation."

"I should have been sterner. Told her to never even THINK of going near her..."

"You've earned your one week bonus which will be given to you in the form of a delightful gift basket, the cost of which will be taken out of your next paycheck."

THAT woke him out of his muttering as he looked up at the PDA system in the elevator and gave it a baleful glare with his lovely green eyes as they turned bitterly cold. "Oh, to bloody HELL with you and your bloody gift basket!"

"We've gift baskets containing fruits, nuts, flowers, and of course the ever-popular cash-basket! Using the keypad-"

"Oh to HELL with your keypad!" William snapped, just PUNCHING the thing so hard that the screen broke with a KRA-KRAK on the spot, and it sparked and fizzled as the PDA system seemed to hesitate, then-

"It seems you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type and will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for selecting...exotic butters." The HandiUnit announced as William groaned and hung his head, pinching the space between his eyes and shaking his head back and forth.

"I swear I'll burn this place to the ground one day." He grunted.

"Please be aware there are two technicians on-site today. Try to avoid interfering with their work if possible. Also, feel free to ask them why they are still there, and encourage them to go home!" The HandiUnit added, William frowning more deeply at this. What the hell? Were they NOT supposed to be down here? The elevator finally came to a halt, stopping at the proper floor as William made his way to the main control room, ignoring the stupid carnival music playing through the PDA. He approached the controls for the lights, and sighed.

"Very well, very well. Who shall I be checking first?" He inquired, looking around the room...blinking.

Odd. There...there was a mask missing. The freakish, faintly boy-like clown mask was gone. How strange.

"Let's check on Ballora and see if she's on-stage." The HandiUnit proclaimed, William sighing as his hand nonchalantly pressed the "Light" button on the left-hand control. As the lights flickered on-

"FUCKIN' HELL!" William screamed out, reeling back, his eyes bugged out and his pulse pulsing rapidly under his skin. A man was hanging from the ceiling, his shadowed form swinging slowly, leisurely back and forth on the stage where Ballora should have been, a faint creaking noise echoing through the air. Quivering with terror, William slowly inched towards the next light controls, ignoring the HandiUnit's voice...turning the light on.

There, in Funtime Foxy's room, another engineer was swinging from the rafters, a noose around their neck as they limply hung on the stage. William gripped the light controls with a feverish shudder shooting through his body as he realized that the worst had transpired. The animatronics were very clearly on the rampage.

"Great! It looks like everything is as it should be in Funtime Auditorium. Your task today will involve more maintenance work. Circus Baby had a rough day and is in need of repair. You will be required to reach the Parts and Service room by once again sneaking through Funtime Auditorium. As always, please proceed with caution."

"I'm going to die in here." William whispered as he inched through the vent, and into the gloom.

...

...

...

...the gloomy darkness of his room was all that Adam could see as he awoke in the middle of the night once again. He gripped his legs tightly, quivering for a moment, trying to catch his breath before reaching past the IV bag and gripping the flashlight by his bedside. Plucking it from off the bureau, he turned it on, shining it about. It was as if the little robots and cars and other toys in the room were all preemptively warning him: the closet. They were all looking right at the closet.

Adam raced to it, the leering, skeletal muzzle of Foxy smirking faintly from the recesses beyond. "C'mon, laddie. Be a good little first mate and ol' Foxy will only tear out HALF yer organs."

"Y-You're not g-getting any!" Adam yelled out, closing the door tightly shut, clasping it tightly as he felt Foxy's body shudder against the interior and he quivered fearfully.

"Now then laddie, that ain't charitable of ye. You oughta let ol' Foxy have some. It's nice to share." KRA-THRUNK! The muzzle almost broke through the door but Adam held it firm, cringing, sweat dripping down his brow as Foxy laughed and laughed.

"Ol' Foxy's gonna have such a fun time with you...once the others get their turn. I want yer eye, me boyo. Gotta get me a NEW one." The horrific nightmare whispered as a knock came at the door on the other side.

"...Foxy...that shall be enough of that." Freddy's voice nonchalantly intoned, Adam going pale as Freddy continued to speak. Luckily, Adam could feel the pressure fading from the closet so he bolted for the door Freddy was at, keeping it closely shut as he stared at the closet, ready to bolt for THAT again if Foxy tried to make a repeat appearance. "I imagine you'd like to know why I'm speaking to you, Adam?"

"Well that'd b-be nice to know..." Adam managed to mumble out.

"My friends and I will not be able to see you tonight. Nightmare would like to speak with you."

Adam blinked a bit. "N-Nightmare?"

"Oh yes. He'll be around soon. Get comfortable. You won't have long." Freddy nonchalantly intoned as his steps faded away and Adam peeked out into the hallway...

As a new pair of heavier, duller steps filled the hallway's still air, and Adam felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

Nightmare was a creature made up of inky darkness that was softly shifting, a horrific metal endoskeleton faintly visible through the shifting darkness. His eyes were a burning, foul, soulless red like the bloodstained, razor-sharp teeth he had. His hat and bow tie were golden yellow like Fredbear, and faintly quivering little strips of worms seemed to wriggle about its body. It was as if the shifting darkness itself was made up of thousands of worms that were slightly rotting off its rotting-meat-stenched form as it grinned toothily at Adam.

"I will eat you _moist_." It murmured out, reaching out with its razor-sharp taloned paws.

Adam shrieked and slammed the door shut. "YOU STAY AWAY FROM ME!" He screamed in terror. He could feel Nightmare banging on the door with a single clawed fist, and hear its voice, like the sound of flesh being slowly scraped off someone while they were still alive, and screaming.

"You knew you would not escape. You knew you would die here. Tonight. You have always known that. And I will be your death. Your painful, agonizing, screaming death, as you die alone and afraid." Nightmare intoned. "Killed by the very thing you feared most."

"SHUT UP! YOU'RE NOT THERE!" Adam tried to cry out. "YOU'RE NOT REALLY THERE AT ALL!" He howled as the shuddering thud of Nightmare's frame bashing against the door continued to fill his ears, stabbing into his eardrums like hot knives.

Meanwhile, William was inching through the Funtime Auditorium, closer and closer to the door...yet all was eerily silent. As quiet as the grave. He quietly shuddered, opening up the door, then swiftly closing it behind him as he approached Circus Baby, who lay on the conveyor belt before him, turned off and harmless. Or so it appeared.

"Great job reaching parts and service! Circus Baby has been deactivated for an unknown reason. It's your job to ensure she is structurally stable. Move her along on the conveyor, our technicians will take it from there."

"No, I don't think they will." William mumbled as Circus Baby's soft voice lilted through the air.

"Can you hear me? I'm pretending. Remember how I said I could pretend? The cameras are watching. I must be careful not to move." Circus Baby's voice whispered back. "They cannot HEAR, but they can see. They saw something bad that happened yesterday. I think something bad happens every day here." The voice remarked.

William sighed. "You do not know the HALF of it, Circus Baby." He remarked.

"I don't want it to happen again. There's something bad INSIDE of me. I'm broken. I can't be fixed. I'm gonna be taken to the Scooping Room soon, but it won't fix what is wrong with me." Her voice quietly pleaded as William kept listening to Circus Baby's voice. "What is bad...is always left behind. Will you help me? I want you to save what is good...so the rest can be destroyed and never recovered! But you must be careful. Ballora is in the room behind us. And she will not return to her stage. Ballora will not return to her body. You must be careful. You must remain calm. And LISTEN to my voice. There is a button on my cheek. You must find it and push it."

"I know, Circus Baby." William spoke quietly. "...I know exactly where it is. Your little dimple I made..." He intoned as he stepped towards her, gently holding her cheek in one hand. For the briefest of moments, it almost felt like flesh as he quietly reached his thumb up...

CLICK. Her right ponytail flipped up, revealing a keypad that now jutted from her head as he sighed. "Your auxiliary programming keypad." He mumbled...shuddering a bit. Did...did he hear...something sloughing? It sounded almost...slimy?

"There is a passcode you must enter before you can send me away. Listen to the code carefully..."

Number after number was entered, and then POP! Now a hatch on her arm opened up, and William calmly looked down, seeing the soft, faintly green-glowing little keycard that was present. He picked it up, holding it in his hands. "Good." Circus Baby's voice remarked. "Now you must turn back. I will guide you through Funtime Auditorium so you can reach the Scooping Room. When you are there, I want you to destroy this body. Put the card into your handheld device and I can continue to speak to you. Now push the green button on the conveyor. It will send me to the scooping room."

William pulled out his HandiUnit communicator, sighing as he took out the battery from the back, slipping the chip inside like a walkie talkie getting new batteries. "You must follow my instructions." Circus Baby's voice lilted out from the communicator as he closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath, steeling himself for what would come next. "Move through Funtime Auditorium. Ballora is going to follow you. She will try to catch you. I will help you avoid her. She will not follow you into the Scooping Room. She is afraid. Go back now."

William made his way forward, inching forth as Circus Baby's voice carefully guided him through the inky darkness. Bit by bit he inched further and further, with nothing but the black enveloping him as he strained to hear something, ANYTHING...yet fearful of what he might hear.

But then Circus Baby had him stop, her tone taking on a faintly panicked air.

"STOP."

William froze. He thought he could faintly hear that...squelching, slimy sound?

"...she...is right in front of you. Don't. Move."

...

...

...

...Adam felt the bitter, baleful tears sliding down his cheeks, and he tearfully whimpered, his flashlight chasing away the monstrous little black heads on his bed. Nightmare had infested every ounce of his room, its eyes barreling deep into his own, its pitiless, foul laughter ringing through the air as he began to sob.

He seemed to be everywhere and nowhere, impossible to get away from, and there was nowhere he could go. Adam began to sob as he raced to the door on the left hand side of his room, hearing Nightmare's voice echoing from the other side.

"Oh Adam. You cannot keep me out forever." It intoned. "Open up the door. I can grant a merciful death. At times..." It whispered, a horrific noise ringing through the air as it began to laugh, its sneering jeers sounding like a flatlining hospital machine, tearing into Adam's skull as he gripped the doorknob with all the force he could muster.

"I HATE you!" Adam managed to mumble out. "I hate you I hate you I hate you!"

"You don't hate me, Adam. You hate yourself for your weakness. For not being strong enough to stand up to me. To your brother. To anything you fear. All you can do is run and hide." Nightmare remarked calmly before he BANGED on the door and Adam shrieked, hearing Nightmare's fists pounding on it over and over, threatening to knock Adam back. "AND I WILL CATCH YOU. I will ALWAYS catch you. You will NEVER be free from this nightmare. You know in your soul you were on borrowed time!"

Adam held the door as tightly shut as he could, but he could feel his strength beginning to slip away. He could hear Nightmare's laughter ringing in his ears. Laughter that was now too human, too familiar, too...too much like...like...

 _"WOW, your brother's kind of a baby, isn't he?"_

 _"It's hilarious."_

 _"Why don"t we help him get a closer look? He'll love it!"_

 _"No! PLEASE!"_

 _"C'mon, guys. Let's give this little man a lift. He wants to get up close and PERSONAL!"_

Elsewhere, William heard Circus Baby's voice trying to appeal to Ballora. He stayed stock still, frozen in place as she spoke smoothly and calmly. "He is here to help, Ballora. He is not here to hurt us. Ballora, he is here to help us."

He waited...staying utterly still. He held in his breath, his body faintly quivering with fear.

"Go forward again. Ballora is behind you. She is afraid of the scooping room. She will not follow you." Circus Baby's voice insisted. William took a small breath, then moved forward, his hands feeling out in the darkness, grasping the necessary handle. He turned it, and pulled the door open, then shut it behind him, breathing a sigh of relief as he heard the PDA system spark to life. Heard that annoying HandiUnit speak once more.

"Warning! You have entered a highly dangerous area. You have entered from Maintenance Hatch 1-B, reserved for maintenance and repairs of the Scooper. Entering this side of the room is strictly prohibited by unauthorized personnel."

The light at the top of the room was slowly beginning to turn on, flashing softly and circling around and around, bathing the room in a faintly purplish light as William found himself surrounded by the husks of the animatronics, all missing their metal endoskeletons, lying about like corpses, as several large windows lay to either side of a gigantic, metallic mechanical device with a giant curved "scoop". The Scooper itself was now facing him, and the scooper towered high above him as he heard Circus Baby's voice...and faintly saw a figure appearing in the window just beyond as he turned...

Seeing the door was locked.

"You are in the Scooping Room now." Circus Baby's voice intoned. "Funtime Foxy has already been here today. Funtime Freddy has already been here today. Ballora has already been here today. Circus Baby has already been here today."

William Afton felt a horrific shudder stab into the back of his neck as he saw the figure in the window, a metallic being with a mask that he recognized...the missing, faintly puppet-esque mask with the red clown nose and boyish looks. It was staring at him, slightly swaying back and forth as it looked deep into his eyes.

"I've been out here before. But they always put me back. They always put us back inside. There's nowhere for us to hide here. There is nowhere to go...when we look like this." He heard it say as it put a gnarled hand on its chest. "...but if we looked like YOU...then we could hide. If we looked like you...then we would have somewhere to go."

William Afton's eyes went wide as he realized what was about to happen.

"The Scooper only hurts for a moment." The false voice of Circus Baby cooed, before the blaring of an alarm rang through the air...and the Scooper came down. HARD.

The blood splattered across the room, and William Afton didn't even get a chance to scream as the pretender calmly opened up the door to get...inside.

And ironic, that on the same day William Afton breathed his last...it had been the day of the incident. The horrific bite. The bite that Adam remembered all too well.

 _His brother Jeremy and his friends had all been wearing Freddy Fazbear Masks. They'd grown up on the franchise and had loved the diner as children, and loved going there. But they also loved fooling around with Adam, especially his brother. Now Jeremy, wearing the "Foxy" mask picked Adam up with the others as he uselessly squirmed about, tears streaming down his cheeks. His parents had gone outside to welcome others to the party, they'd be back inside in five minutes._

 _Five minutes was all it would take._

 _"No no no no no! I don't wanna go! I don't wanna gooooo!" Adam shrieked as they brought him towards the stage where the big animatronics were, where Fredbear and his microphone were. He stood on the stage with ol' Spring Bonnie as Jeremy laughed._

 _"Ya heard the lil' man! He wants to get even closer! Ha ha ha!"_

 _"Put me down!" Adam screamed, all of them right up to the stage as Fredbear "sang" on stage, mouth opening and closing as he belted out some lyrics that none of them could hear, all of them lost in the unfolding horrific tragedy._

 _"Hey guys, I think the little man said he wants to give Fredbear a kiss!" Jeremy laughed as his friends all laughed and snorted and chuckled along with him. "On three! One! Two!"_

 _And then they lifted him up into Fredbear's mouth, sticking his head in there, Fredbear unable to close it as Adam squirmed and screamed, flailing about as Jeremy and his friends giggled._

 _"PFFFT! Hahahaha! Can't believe you're so scared of a stupid bear!" Jeremy sniggered. "C'mon, lil' man, you gotta-"_

 _And then the mouth DID come down. With a horrible, sickening, final CRUNCH, as the laughter ended._

 _"...grow...up..." Jeremy trailed off._

* * *

Adam now knelt before Golden Freddy, his toys plopped off in the distance as he laid in a dark abyss.

"...I don't know if you can hear me." He heard an all-too familiar voice whisper, its voice broken and torn.

Adam's tear-stained cheeks hung low as he covered his face with his hands, the voice continuing to quietly speak.

"I'm sorry."

"You're broken." Golden Freddy's voice softly whispered as Adam wrapped his arms around himself and began to quietly cry, his eyes closed tight as the Foxy plushy slowly vanished.

"We are still your friends. Do you believe that?" Then the Chica the Chicken plushy vanished, Golden Freddy continuing to tenderly speak to Adam, Bonnie's plushy vanishing next.

"I'm still here." Golden Freddy intoned, as the Freddy plushie vanished, leaving only Golden Freddy.

"And I will put you back together."

With that, Adam felt a giant pair of arms tenderly wrap around him, and he allowed himself to cry, the tears flowing down from his cheeks, pooling around his body, as he stared down into the water below. A pair of large, black arms were softly wrapped around him, a white-masked face gazed over his shoulder, gently nestled against his head. It seemed to be perpetually crying purple tears as it nuzzled against him, and Adam gently sank into soft satin as a flatline that had been so loud before slowly faded into the dark. And with that...

He was free.

...

...

...

... _"Don't tell Daddy. I wanted to see your show too. I don't know why he won't let me see you, you're WONDERFUL!...where did the other children go?"_

The form slid across the room, it's visage appearing in the mirror, blackened and barely visible in the shadows. The employee medical wing it had walked into had what it needed, but only just. It had taken a while, but at last, it was done.

And it opened up its eyes as they leered back, a sharp, piercing purple gazing out and reflected in the grungy, grimy mirror.

 _At last they were free._


	6. Epilogue

"So that's what happened to William Afton?" Jeremy Fitzgerald asked as he tilted his head, the red-haired young man's grey shirt faintly visible underneath his purple guard uniform. His friend, the chief technician nodded.

"That's what the whole neighborhood says. He died in that place. They found his Driver's license, his blood, the whole shebang." Michael remarked with a sigh as he sat back in his chair, resting his rather bald head in his hands. His hair was barely there at all, he'd clearly seen better days, and he looked deeply mournful and depressed as Jeremy Fitzgerald sat back in another chair in the lounge room. "...I'll never know why it happened but...it did."

"You think the animatronics got him?" Jeremy asked quietly. His eyes were a soft color like his brother's had been, and his voice, though faintly deep, had a concerned softness to it as well. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza was bright and colorful even inside the lounge room, with gigantic posters showing off the "Toy Animatronics" on display on every wall, a big plushy Freddy Fazbear on the nearby couch, a bright blue refrigerator and a smiling Chica cookie jar on the countertop next to it.

Michael rubbed his head again. "...I think they did. I can't think of any other explanation for...for HOW it happened." He mumbled. "The technicians were dead, after all. Nobody else could have done it, and...and he was too careful to ACCIDENTALLY be killed by that Scooper. It was a bloody mess down there."

Jeremy quietly nodded. He believed it. Putting on his cap, he rose up and headed over to the refrigerator, pulling out a Coke and sipping it. "Listen, my friends and I are going out tomorrow night at 7 to the new Chinese place. If you'd like to come..."

"You really think they want me comin'? I stink something horrible. It comes from working in grease and oil and sweat all day...and from the damned condition my dearest father passed down to poor, unfortunate me." Michael remarked as he sat up in his chair and sighed, shifting back, his skin an ugly, saggy, sweaty and oily mess. His hands were almost black with grease and oil, his face covered in the stuff as well. His uniform looked more like a smock than a proper uniform. But they kept him on because he was cheap, and the only one who knew how to properly operate and fix the animatronics, all of the other technicians had done terribly.

"I want you there." Jeremy said with a nod. "I wanna introduce you to someone very special I've just met. Think you'll really like 'em. They're British, just like you." He added with a little grin.

"Do you promise not to make me do the Dick van Dyke voice?" Michael finally inquired with a sigh. "Do that, and I'll come over with you. Right after I help with the operational manager, Scott. He's a decent chap, but he's a bloody idiot. Talks too much."

"Sounds good to me!" Jeremy cheerily remarked, giving a tip of his purple cap and heading out the door, past the prize corner in Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. He stopped in place, seeing the Puppet thing, the Marionette, was looking up at him from the box. It just...stared...and stared.

Was it trying to place him? Did it have facial recognition like the Toy Animatronics did? Jeremy wasn't sure. He didn't like being around those things either, he'd gotten in trouble with the law for that awful incident a few years back and was afraid to be within five feet of them. But he worked the Day Shift, and they NEVER tried anything during those hours. So he shrugged, and headed out the door, Michael quietly sighing as he leaned back in his chair again...

Remembering the last day he'd been truly human.

...and all the awful, ugly things that had come soon after.

 _A nice, normal day...as a slave in your own body. He was faintly aware he was walking down the street, the neighbors all cheerily smiling and waving at him. He was the best employee the place had, after all. Freddy's couldn't do without him. Yet he yearned...YEARNED to scream out that he was not himself. That he was not his father, that he was not William Afton. That he'd only been PRETENDING to be to get in, to..._

 _But nobody could listen. Nobody WOULD listen. And the memories of those that were forcing him to walk like a puppet were drowning him. They were so attached to their own lie, they refused to believe the truth. They believed he WAS William. And sometimes he almost did himself._

 _But bit by bit, the hold over him was being broken. For after a week of working at the new Freddy's Diner...others began to notice. Their smiles had faded as they saw his skin was...oddly greying. Sickly. Less of a spring in his step, and more of a...pale imitation._

 _Literally._

 _Bit by bit, the smiles were gone, and people's faces looked concerned. Worried. Disturbed._

 _Terrified. They hid behind their houses. They ran away from him before he even stepped out of the building. He shambled his way down to his home, coughing often, panting and heaving, lungs feeling as though they were on fire, a baleful, furious darkness swelling up inside. He was so...damn...mad._

 _And then...then it happened. Their control was weakened enough. The streets had been empty that day, and soon...so was he. He let out a disgusting, foul, unnatural yell and vomited up metal and blood and oil and grease and eyes, flopping onto the ground, hearing Baby's voice whispering, bouncing about in his mind. Her horrible, misguided attempt to comfort him after KILLING him._

 _"You won't die..."_

 _A twitch of his arms and legs._

 _"You won't die..."_

 _His eyes began to flicker. Turning..._

 _Silver..._

 _"You won't die..."_

 _"You won't die..."_

 _"You won't die..."  
"You won't die..."  
"You won't die..."  
_ _ **"You won't die..."**_ __

 _And with that, Michael Afton rose up, his purplish skin barely attached to his frame as he grinned in foul delight._

 _No._

 _He wouldn't die._

 _He'd come back._

 _...he would ALWAYS...come back..._


End file.
